I don’t know if it’s a ‘free pass’ so much as it is a ‘we don’t give a f—’. In states where hate crime laws have been enacted, should prison gang members get harsher sentences when they commit race-motivated crimes? Or for being a part of a certain race gang? I mean, you can be in jail, do something stupid and then get more time tacked on, right?
I think the ‘hate crimes’ determination can be pretty subjective. I can really hate someone and then call them the n word while I’m punching them in the face, but it’s possible I punched them in the face because they made me angry for cutting ahead of me in line or something. But if the ‘n-word’ is caught on tape, someone may mistake that punch as racially motivated.
I have seen kids get beat up for being part of the wrong ‘crew’ at school, and said ‘crew’ was race-based. One of my students gets picked on for being white (well, light-skinned - he’s half Puerto Rican but is pale as a sheet). Actually, a couple do. I’ve also noticed that teachers get angry at the words ‘beaner’ and ‘nigger’ not the term ‘whitewashed’ or ‘cracker’. My new boss (white, female) would definitely send a kid home if they called a black person the n-word, but no one has been sent home for calling anyone a cracker or saying they’re going to ‘beat that white boy’s ass’. Ironically, most of the staff where I work is ethno-centric and insensitive to race issues. They’ve just been conditioned that the n-word is the worst thing ever.
When you start questioning people’s motives, it gets more and more subjective. Sure, it’s part of the police’s job to question motives, but how do we really know that xyz crime occurred just because abc person doesn’t like blacks/whites/gays/women/etc.? The burden of proof has to be strict.
Sometimes it’s very obvious. Matthew Shepard’s case was obvious.* Treyvon Martin’s case isn’t as obvious (er, well…depends who you ask).
Also, imho of course, I think it deepens racial tensions. The OP posted about a crime that occurred with a black mayor in charge, and there was also discussion of Black Panthers and the Obama administration and etc. The Youtube videos of violent mobs and voter intimidation is disturbing. So it’s very easy to say, “Well, of course you don’t think so, you’re black!” or “You have white privilege!” or ______.
I really don’t think that many people care about black on black crime or black v. Hispanic crime or whathaveyou. I don’t think people care if a Vietnamese gang beats up a Latino kid. They’re thugs anyway, right? But when a white person is involved - be they the victim or the perpetrator - I think people care. And that really, really sucks.
*To me. The MS case was a defining moment in my growing-up years.